The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season is down to this: Two ovals on two Sundays.

The first of these season-ending races is this weekend’s Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 at the Milwaukee Mile (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Last year’s event was a doubleheader, which means there are two drivers especially eager to return to the country’s most historic 1-mile oval.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin were Milwaukee’s race winners a year ago. O’Ward has won two races this season, including the first of two held at Iowa Speedway in July. Second in the standings, he cannot overtake series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, but he wants to keep Palou’s teammate, Scott Dixon, behind him. Palou’s sizable advantage on the six-time series champion is 64 points.

McLaughlin is in a different situation.

The New Zealander is, like all of Team Penske, enduring a difficult season. McLaughlin has yet to win a race, and this will be the first time as a driver in this series that he hasn’t improved – or at least maintained -- his season standing. Since finishing 14th as a rookie in 2021, McLaughlin has finished fourth, third and third in the championship, but he is 11th this year, two points behind AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas. McLaughlin has won three races each of the past two seasons, including last year.

Josef Newgarden is another Team Penske driver still chasing his first win of the season. The two-time series champion has won at least one race each of the past 10 seasons, and in nine of those years, he won two or more races. In 2022, he won a career-best five, and the next year he won four.

Working in Newgarden’s favor for the next two races is his past excellence on short ovals. He had a strong car at World Wide Technology Raceway in June when, as one of the top contenders to win, he was collected in a frightening frontstretch accident. Last month at Iowa, Newgarden qualified in the first four positions for both races, finishing second and 10th, respectively, with a combined 304 laps led.

McLaughlin and Newgarden were last year’s Milwaukee NTT P1 Award winners.

O’Ward and Palou, who is now a four-time series champion, won the Iowa races. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood won at World Wide Technology Raceway. Look for all of them to be in the mix to reach victory lane Sunday.

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly is another driver eager to return to Milwaukee. He finished third in last year’s first race, one of his two career podium finishes, and he had a season-high 51 passes for position. Daly also has a history of strong runs on short ovals. His only series pole came at Iowa in 2020. This year, he finished sixth at World Wide Technology Raceway and was seventh in the first Iowa race.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci finished fourth in both Milwaukee races last year. He finished fifth this June at World Wide Technology Raceway and, like Daly, has had his best results on oval tracks. He was one of nine drivers to lead at Milwaukee last year.

The Rookie of the Year battle figures to go down to the wire. Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing leads PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman by six points. Shwartzman has had better results on the ovals, including a pair of top-10 finishes (ninth in the second Iowa races and 10th at World Wide Technology Raceway to go with his pole for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge). Foster’s best oval finish was 12th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It’s time to get busy. After Milwaukee, the series heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the season-ending Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot on Sunday, Aug. 31.